My name is Don DeLeva, I am a Seattle based artist. I work mainly in acrylic on wood panel. My art vacillates between POP Surrealism and abstraction mainly focusing on portraits and the visualization of personality and perspective. Recently, I have been bringing both styles together to create a fuller more vibrant image. This site is dedicated to the ideas that inspire my work art. Thank you for visiting.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

I paint on pieces until I feel then are finished. I know that sounds logical but how do you know when something is finished if you have no idea what the end result will be?

When I started creating art I was a Photo Realist, but after 3 years I got board of coping what I was looking at, besides I didn't see the point in poorly imitating a camera.

My Art is a log or journal of where my mind has been for the hours I have been working.
One thought leads into the next, that is why my work is busy and seems to be fragmented. This is how I am inspired to keep painting.

Here is an example of a painting I have been working on for the last 3 weeks.

The painting seems to be at half stage, although I can never be quite sure. I have some paintings go through 3 or 4 finished states before they are complete. I think it has to do with the fact that my skill has not caught up with where the painting is going. I have had paintings take 4 years to complete, that's working on them 2 to 3 hours a day. Some times I will show works because I think they are finish only to realize later on I need to go back in to them.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Untitled, Acrylic on panel, 8x10, 2012

My new room, graphite on paper, 8x8, 2012

Stroll on Wall, oil on panel, 20x30 2012

America or me?, oil on panel, 40 x40, 2012

Roots, graphite on Yupo paper, 8x11, 2012

Hedge Fund, oil on panel, 25x30 2012

Cut Throat, graphite on paper, 8x12 2012

White Collar 2, acrylic on panel, 8x8 2012

An innocent man, acrylic on panel, 8x8 2012

So here is some of the work I have completed in the last 5 months. I have made a move toward acrylics. After painting with oils for 20 years I needed to break my pattern to learn more about the images and ways to improve on the final outcome of the work.

I am also going back to my instinct of image. I got caught up in trying to sell art and as I say, you either make art to sell or you make it because you have something to say, blessed and cursed are those who's art speaks to the masses and is rewarded for it.
Blessed because of your material reward, cursed by the limitations, definitions and accolades of your supporters.

I have found after 26 years of creating, my original goal was to have a unique vision, one I forged myself from my mentors and heros. I wanted to be able to say that no one could create the art that Don DeLeva creates. I have achieved that goal my friends. Now, it's onto the important things in living that I ignored to complete my main life's mission!

I am trying to forget all that I have learned so the art and process can be its own entity. I know it might be hard to understand. It's like forgetting that you know how to count, you just do it. It's the way method, training and thinking become instinct. If you can do it right, you can grow it into something that becomes an ever unfolding path with everyday that can't exist without you but exists outside of you.

Currently, I am rebuilding my mind with programming, frontend development for the internet.
I am filling my head with JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3 and Jquery, because this has been clearly helping me to create art without art on my mind. I am painting now to escape an intentional thought process. That process is being used and exercised when I building websites and applications.